A Fan's Look at Head Injuries and the Concussion Crisis in Football

In the News

Reading about New York Jets RB Joe McNight’s concussion this morning is like listening to a kid having to fess up that the car he borrowed last night kinda, mighta, coulda possibly have barely gotten a little scratch on it, maybe.

Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com reports that the latest problem is an apparent concussion for Joe McKnight. – Josh Alper, Profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

The lawyers have spoken. The media has spoken. The fans have spoken. The owners have spoken (well, at least one has). Now the players are speaking. Apparently, seventeen Pro Football Hall of Famers and one player about to be enshrined this weekend have written a letter to Roger Goodell begging for help. Years of hitting, years of getting their bell rung, years of smelling salts and getting right back to the huddle have taken their toll on some of the greatest players we’ve ever seen.

Paul Brown was an NFL pioneer. He was the first coach to use game film, first to hire full-time assistants, he invented the face mask and he drew up the draw play. He also gave the NFL his middle son, Mike Brown, a 1950’s Dartmouth quarterback and Harvard-educated lawyer. The younger Brown, now 77 and owner of the Cincinnati Bengals, may be better known for his contentious relationship with the Cincinnati community since getting the best of them in a 17 year-old stadium financing deal. The Bengals have also produced few winning seasons since the deal, likely the higher crime in typical rabid fan-based football perspective. However, on Tuesday July 23, Brown offered a new twist, his owner’s perspective on the concussion crisis facing the NFL.

Could the proposed mediation between the NFL and the players involved in the concussion litigation lead to a settlement that allows the NFL to shield twenty years of documents and knowledge related to brain trauma? That is the question behind a recent HuffPost Blog piece by Michael V. Kaplen and Shana De Caro. In “A Mediated Settlement May Not Be the Best Solution to the NFL Concussion Crisis” the writers state:

Any significant and comprehensive mediated settlement of this lawsuit brought on behalf of approximately 4,000 brain injured players must reject any confidentiality clauses, address the future risks to players, and provide proper redress to those who have already suffered the devastating and enduring effects of traumatic brain damage.

The NFL in accordance with the 2011 CBA is introducing an iPad medical records sharing program to be used by all of the 32 teams in the league. They are touting the program as an improvement in sideline concussion assessment, although it seems like it’s more practical as an HR resource that allows teams to better evaluate new players when making personnel decisions.

The NFL said they have not determined how the database will be used in relation to free agents. Certainly, it’s in the owners best interest competitively and financially to have as much medical history as possible on each of their employees, or potential employees.

As we and our burgeoning e-commerce world get more used to ignoring lengthy privacy policies and nonchalantly agreeing to online user agreements, it seems that these documents are getting longer. And the longer these legal agreements are written, the less likely anybody is to actually read any of them. Seriously, how many of the 575 million iTunes users have read the 58 page user agreement before clicking on the box to confirm that they’ve read it, understand it, and agree with it. Who knows what deal 575 million human beings have made with Apple?

That brings us to today’s Riddell consumer football helmet and its warning label. As sold in retail stores, the helmet comes with a large, cumbersome warning. But what’s the point?

“We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about [the health-care law’s] implementation.”

~ NFL spokesman Greg Aiello

Sure, sounds reasonable, why should the NFL step into the middle of this political hot potato? But then again, there’s always the fact that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is the law, whether or not you like the president or taxes or whatever, and Obamacare is perhaps the best thing to ever happen to retired NFL veterans.